Pushing Back Against Slander Against Kinism by the CRCNA’s Reggie Smith II

Reggie Smith Head of the CRCNA’s Race Relations Division;

2. What is the biblical evidence for kinists’ claims for racial separation? 

Kinists hold that God wanted to maintain distinctions. They look at Old Testament examples to demonstrate how God forbade interracial marriages between Israel and other nations, and they use this to justify the statement that God must also forbid interracial marriage today. Kinists use Genesis 1:25 and 11:7-9 to state that God mandated life based on kinship or relationships with people of “the same kind.”

Synod 2019 declared that this type of thinking is a heresy. It is incorrect to read these passages and say that God was concerned about ethnic background or skin color. Instead, the issue that God was expressing in these Old Testament passages was about keeping his people free of the detestable practices of other nations. Israel had to remain a faithful covenant partner to God alone and not be corrupted by their neighbors. In the New Testament, Christ broke down the wall of separation between Israel and other nations through the cross. For more information, see Acts of Synod 2019, p. 489-505.

Bret Responds,

1.) Here Reggie Smith faults Kinists for saying that “God wanted to maintain distinctions.” The obvious position for Reggie then is to insist that “God doesn’t want to maintain distinctions,” or perhaps “God doesn’t care about distinctions.” It is true that Kinists believe that God wants to maintain distinctions. It is also true that Kinists believe that people like Reggie believing that “God doesn’t want to maintain distinctions,” or, “God doesn’t care about distinctions” is the proof for the Kinist insistence that people like Reggie Smith are operating out of a Marxist world and life view. Consider that this idea that “God doesn’t want to maintain distinctions” is the exact same position that the Marxists have been aiming for since its inception as seen in the quotes now provided,

a.) ”What will be the attitude of communism to existing nationalities?

The nationalities of the peoples associating themselves in accordance with the principle of community will be compelled to mingle with each other as a result of this association and hereby to dissolve themselves, just as the various estate and class distinctions must disappear through the abolition of their basis, private property.”

~ Frederick Engels in “The Principles of Communism”, 1847

b.) “The equality of races and nations is one of the most important elements of the moral strength and might of the Soviet state. Soviet anthropology develops the one correct concept, that all the races of mankind are biologically equal. The genuinely materialist conception of the origin of man and of races serves the struggle against racism, against all idealist, mystic conceptions of man, his past, present and future.”

—Mikhail Nesturkh, Soviet anthropologist, 1959
“The Origin of Man” (Moscow)Mikhail Nesturkh, Soviet anthropologist, 1959:

c.) “The aim of socialism is not only to abolish the present division of mankind into small states and end all national isolation; not only to bring the nations closer together but to merge them….”

Vladimir Lenin
The Rights of Nations to Self Determination — pg. 76

d.) “… Just as mankind can achieve the abolition of classes only by passing through the dictatorship of the proletariat, so mankind can achieve the inevitable merging of nations only by passing through the transition period of complete liberation of all oppressed nations, i.e., their right to secede. “

Vladimir Lenin 
The Rights of Nations to Self Determination 

e.) “Even the natural differences within species, like racial differences…, can and must be done away with historically.” 

K. Marx’s Collected Works V:103,
As cited in S.F. Bloom’s The World of Nations: A
Study of the National Implications in the Work of Karl Marx, Columbia University Press, New York, 1941, pp. 11 & 15-19:

f.) “Full-scale Communist construction constitutes a new stage in the development of national relations in the U.S.S.R., in which the nations will draw still closer together until complete unity is achieved…. However, the obliteration of national distinctions and especially of language distinctions is a considerably longer process than the obliteration of class distinctions.”

Nikita Khrushchev

Thus, we see, that those like Reggie Smith are operating consistent with the Marxist playbook. Now Reggie Smith may not be a Marxist. He may just be stupid or ignorant. But either way, the fact that Kinists believe that God wants to maintain racial/ethnic distinctions has only been seen as somehow un-Christian since the rise of the Marxist fueled civil rights era.

2.) Instead of rehashing the Biblical argument for ethno-Nationalism I am providing a link below that gives a thorough Biblical case for Kinism. Reggie Smith, provided his intelligence doesn’t fail him, can see that the case extends far beyond the two passages he cites.

A Biblical Defense of Ethno-Nationalism

3.) As far as what CRCNA synod 2019 said, I can only quote the author of the book “The Jews and Their Lies.” Martin Luther said

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”

(Reply to the Diet of Worms, April 18, 1521)

Currently, the NAPARC denominations as well as the CREC (Doug Wilson’s personally owned denomination) and the CRCNA (being in league with a even more liberal constabulary of churches) are, on the issue of race and the JQ, are overturning what the church has taught in all times and all places where it has been orthodox. When any Church body tacitly or expressly embraces Marxist egalitarianism, it is irrelevant what pronouncements they make as well as all the gravitas wherein they make said pronouncements. As Luther might well have said, “It is just so much farting in the wind.”

4.) As Reginald says, it is true that God broke down the wall of separation between Israel and other nations through the cross. However, the wall of separation the cross brought down was the wall that forbad the Gentiles from having access to the inner courts in the Temple that were accessible to Jews only. The whole idea of the walls being broken down is to communicate that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation now have access to the Spiritual blessings found in Christ. Reginald has made a category error. All because men from all races have access to the God’s presence doesn’t mean that all races are required to cease being races. Reginald, as well as countless other conceptually barren folks are teaching here, with their insistence that the cross eliminates previous distinctions, that grace destroys nature. The Cross of Jesus Christ eliminates all social, racial, and class barriers so that all men can flee to Christ. As is said, “The ground is even at the Cross.” However, that is a matter of grace. The even ground at the Cross does not mean that all areas of nature are flatten out to become a egalitarian’s delight. All the Fathers who were not Anabaptists or nutcase Covenanters understood this. Even the Dutch Reformed understood this.

“Nationalism, within proper limits, has the divine sanction; an imperialism that would, in the interest of one people, obliterate all lines of distinction is everywhere condemned as contrary to the divine will. Later prophecy raises its voice against the attempt at world-power, and that not only, as is sometimes assumed, because it threatens Israel, but for the far more principal reason, that the whole idea is pagan and immoral.

Now it is through maintaining the national diversities, as these express themselves in the difference of language, and are in turn upheld by this difference, that God prevents realization of the attempted scheme… [In this] was a positive intent that concerned the natural life of humanity. Under the providence of God each race or nation has a positive purpose to serve, fulfillment of which depends on relative seclusion from others.”

-Geerhardus Vos,
Biblical Theology

We should allow Calvin to chime in against Reginald Smith’s and the CRCNA’s Marxist views;

“Regarding our eternal salvation, it is true that one must not distinguish between man and woman, or between king and a shepherd, or between a German and a Frenchman. Regarding policy, however, we have what St. Paul declares here; for our, Lord Jesus Christ did not come to mix up nature, or to abolish what belongs to the preservation of decency and peace among us….Regarding the kingdom of God (which is spiritual) there is no distinction or difference between man and woman, servant and master, poor and rich, great and small. Nevertheless, there does have to be some order among us, and Jesus Christ did not mean to eliminate it, as some flighty and scatterbrained dreamers [believe].”

John Calvin (Sermon on 1 Corinthians 11:2-3)

We clearly see in all of the above that Reginald Smith, the CRCNA, NAPARC, the CREC are all anti-Christ in the Cultural Marxist agenda that they are promulgating.

 

 

Pushing Back Against Slander Against Kinism by the CRCNA’s Reggie Smith

It has been impossible to keep up with all the misrepresentation and slander that has been thrown in the direction of those who identify as Christians and not Marxists. Just recently I came across yet another slanderous piece written by the head of the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRCNA) head of race relations.  That piece can be located here though if you read it you’ll learn nothing about Kinism that is representative of what Kinists believe. It’s just another hack piece as coming from the pen of someone who has imbibed the spirit of the age.

I honestly don’t know if it is a case of low IQ that finds so many people so consistently misrepresenting Kinism or whether it is just a matter of people having been so thoroughly brainwashed on the subject of race realism that they just can’t get outside of their bubble. A third option is that these folks really have reinterpreted Christianity through a cultural Marxist grid. The chap who wrote this piece is a known quantity and I have pretty much concluded that on this subject he is just not capable of understanding what he is writing about. However, he is not the only one in the CRCNA who has slandered me, the Church I serve, and Kinism. There was a chap named Ken Bieber who served on the staff at the CRCNA church in Lansing, Michigan (at the time… that church has since left the CRCNA because they supported the LGBTQ cause in defiance of the denomination) who was quoted in a hit piece by the Lansing State Journal written years ago.

I am pursuing this all again in light of how the Southern Poverty Law Center, who at roughly the same time that the CRCNA was slandering the Church I serve and myself, has finally been exposed as a grifter organization thus giving credence to the truth that like the CRCNA, the SPLC slandered me and slandered the Church I serve.

The article linked above opens with this;

1. What is kinism?

Kinism is a movement that began in the early 2000s in the United States in some Reformed theological circles and churches. It espouses the belief that God has ordained separation of races in all areas of life. Quoting the theology of John Calvin, Abraham Kupyer, and Louis Berkhof, kinists believe that God, through Old Testament witness, rejected all interracial marriages. With this in mind, kinists would use the force of civil government to establish policies similar to apartheid in South Africa before 1994.

1.) Kinism has been around since for millennium. The Anthology books, “Who Is My Neighbor,” and “A Survey of Racialism in Christian Sacred Tradition” proves, in spades, that Kinism is just basic Christianity 101. As such Reggie Smith is just embarrassingly wrong when he writes that the Kinist movement began in the early 2000s in the US.

2.) Reggie Smith is correct though in noticing that Kinist quote from Calvin, Kuyper, Berkhof, Vos, Hodge, DeJong and a host of Reformed Christians. The reason we quote from these chaps is because these chaps were proto-Kinists, which is just another way of saying that they were Biblical Christians. Reggie Smith and the ilk that disagree with the Reformed Fathers are in no position to condemn Kinism as heresy unless they are going to be consistent (something not to be expected from these lowbrows) and condemn Calvin, Kuyper, Berkhof, Vos, etc. as being heretics. Given how far left Reggie is, he may well be willing to do that.

3.) It is not true that Kinism, as a variegated movement, rejects all inter-racial marriages. That is just a bald un-truth. I suppose that Reggie is a little sensitive about this issue since Reggie married inter-racially and apparently faced some disapproval at the time of his marriage from his now in-laws. It may be the case that some Kinists reject all inter-racial marriages, but it is not the case that all Kinists reject all inter-racial marriages. Since Reggie is writing about the movement as a whole when he makes this claim it is an errant claim. I have consistently said that while I think that, generally speaking, inter-racial marriages are unwise, I insist that once such a marriage is contracted the Church should do all it can to support such marriages apart from allowing their own children to enter into such marriages. The Church should also discourage such marriages.

3.) I run in Kinist circles. I know very few Kinists who would advocate the use the force of civil government to establish policies similar to apartheid in South Africa before 1994. This looks to be just a rhetorical ploy to make people scared of Kinism. What Kinist might do is press for legislation that puts an end to Hollywood and advertisers forever putting in our faces inter-racial marriages as if they are some kind of norm. If that much was done, we wouldn’t need the force of civil government since people just do not marry inter-racially on a large enough scale without the culture pushing it to have to be concerned that it will become a norm.

Keep in mind that Reggie Smith has been in error before when raising the specter of South Africa;

Setting the Record Straight … I Was Right Then, And I Am Correct Now – Iron Ink

There you have it. On just this first bullet point by Reggie Smith we see how errant the man is on the subject. There are four more bullet points that good old Reggie raises and we are going to see how he is errant on those as well. It might be said that Reggie Smith is as accurate in his reporting as the SPLC is accurate in their labeling of “hate groups.”

Submitted to “The Free Press” for publication at their request – SPLC

 

Finally, the loathsome SPLC has been indicted. “Whatsoever a man soweth that he shall also reap.”

Of course, this doesn’t mean that this organization will be convicted in a court of law but for now the spotlight has been turned on them to expose the hate filled nature of their hate filled accusations.

My objection to the SPLC was their contention that there was something errant or unworthy about hate. Scripture clearly teaches that God hates all workers of iniquity (Ps. 5:5). Scripture tells us that there are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him (Prov. 6:16, cmp. Zech. 8:17). The Holy Spirit instructs His people to “Hate that which is evil, cling to that which is good (Romans 12:9).”

Because of these instructions I gladly admit that I hate the SPLC with a holy hatred since it has consistently revealed itself as an organization that hates that which God loves (Ps. 139:21). Indeed, the SPLC has always used their hate list as a proxy war to seek to destroy Biblical Christians and Biblical Christianity. Oh, sure, every once in a while, they would put some haters on their list who the Lord Christ hates in order to provide a fig leaf to cover their agenda of destroying Biblical Christianity. Even an old blind wandering sow can find an acorn once in a while. Still, it’s pretty clear that any organization that claimed to be an authority on identifying hate while refusing to name “Anti-fa” as a hate group was working with an ax to grind.”

Next, Christians have to get past thinking that there is something intrinsically wrong with “hate.” How can we not hate that which the Lord Christ loves? How can we not hate that which seeks to destroy the good, the true, and the beautiful as Christianity defines the good, the true, and the beautiful? Instead of defending ourselves from charges of hate we should step up to the mic and say, “Of course I hate that which is vile, false, and ugly. Who wouldn’t?” Christians who don’t hate the SPLC and the parallel organizations are not right in the head. Tolerance of evil folks is not a virtue.

Finally, and this will probably fly right by people, Christians need to realize that Biblical hatred is built on the foundation of love. It is because we love people that we stand in opposition to them when they attack those things God counts as lovely. It would not be love to the Christ hating cosmopolitans to communicate that we accept their attack on that which is virtuous in their pursuit of the establishment of the perverse. We participate in their evil when we don’t tell them to “Kiss the Son lest He be angry and they perish in the way (Ps. 2:9).

Because of all this I popped a cork from the finest champagne and celebrated when I heard of the SPLC being hoisted on their own petard. I only pray now that the ADL, B’nai Brith, and the ACLU will also soon get a similar comeuppance.

Rev. Bret L. McAtee
Charlotte Christ the King Reformed Church
Charlotte, Michigan

 

No Kings Protests as the Religion of Narcissism

At their core, the (No Kings) rallies resemble bad group therapy—gatherings that offer validation, solidarity and emotional release. They feel good in the moment. Participants vent, find reinforcement among like-minded people, and leave feeling heard and aligned. The experience can seem productive, even clarifying. But like bad group therapy, it stops at validation. The feelings are processed but not challenged, reinforced but not examined. There is relief but little resolution, and the underlying problems remain. It offers the feeling of progress without the substance of it.

Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert
Wall Street Journal

Allow me to use Alpert’s piece here to connect some dots.

1.) We have been saying here at Iron Ink for some time that as a culture becomes more and more consistent with its rebellion against Christ the result will be an ever-increasing psychological brokenness expressed especially with the presence of narcissism. As fallen man, no longer checked by a culture informed by Christian categories, or a Christian ethos will no longer have a reason to stay on the leash of even pretended self-denial.  A culture losing the transcendence of God to keep it in check only has one place to turn and that is the inner self. With the turn to the inner self, the inner self becomes the transcendent that must be served and the result is the mental illness we call “narcissism.” The “No Kings” rally is merely a mass gathering of narcissists and neurotics as Alpert observes.

2.) Were we to put a slight spin on Alpert, we would say that not only are these “not protests but bad therapy sessions,” but these protests are religious worship services. There is a connection here as bad worship can also be labeled as bad worship service. I mean bad worship can be described in exactly the same way that Alpert describe bad therapy sessions. Gatherings that,

a.) offer validation
b.) solidarity
c.) emotional release
d.) feel good in the moment
e.) venting
f.) reinforcement
d.) departing feeling heard and aligned

 One only has had to attend your average contemporary Church service to understand all that the “No Kings rally” and your average Pentecostal or Seeker Sensitive worship service have in common. The only thing Alpert doesn’t mention is the shared commonality between the “sermon” one gets at church and the keynote speaker address one finds at your average rally. Whether it is a “No Kings rally” or whether it is your average church service one is just looking at bad therapy sessions.

3.) This observation in turn informs us that when looking at these narcissistic political rallies what we are often seeing is just another bad expression of religion. The “No Kings rally,” and those like it, have largely exposed the attendees as religious devotees. As politics has replaced Christianity as our national religion this all stands to reason. As we have noted here before people intuitively understand that the state has become our god and there is nothing that people will more fight and protest over than the championing of their favorite god, or conversely, the pulling down of the god they don’t favor. Many narcissists don’t like Trump, who they view as the current unworthy God and so they take to the streets, much like the prophets of Baal of old, to cry out, lament, and protest. You can bet that if they thought that cutting themselves would work, they would be opening their veins as well.

4.) So, look at these rallies as old-fashioned revival services. In the old revival services, you would see the same exact thing you are seeing at these “protests.” Great tears. Anguish. Emotion filled expression. People becoming unhinged and beside themselves.

5.) This reminds us that religion never goes away. One can either serve the God of the Bible who is a God of order, self-control and stability or one can serve the God of the narcissistic/neurotic self and/or whatever the self will project itself onto. (In this case politics.)

6.) We have arrived here, as noted above, by rebelling against the Lord Christ and His Law-Word. Let us tease this out a wee bit. We have, over the course of generations, increasingly cordoned off the public square from the any influence of the Christian faith. There are whole theologies, such as Radical Two Kingdom theology, that insist that we need to leave the public square naked from the influence of the Christian faith via the voice of the Church. The impact of that is to strip the public square of any “word of the Lord.” The result is that which we have made completely “secular” (public square) has to come up with the voice of the sacred and the voice of the sacred we have invested in is the State. In the state we live and move and have our being. So, because the dejure “secular” state has become the defacto sacred verbum Dei, religious adherents viciously fight over who will control the god. Behold “No Kings rallies.”

7.) As Gods brook no competition what we can increasingly expect to find is that the enemies of the favorite candidates will be demonized. We have already seen this in recent decades. People who do not agree with the “No Kings” protestors are demon spawn. People who did not agree with Biden were imprisoned. Trump also routinely demonizes people who dare disagree with him. Joe Kent being the most recent example. In this narcissistic/neurotic world one is either feted or headed to the guillotine.

8.) When this kind of revolutionary religion rises, the difficult thing for those who see all of it is to know how to respond. Some of us have family members who if they were not at the “No Kings” protests would still feel right at home with the narcissist/neurotic crowd. There is no reasoning with these people. In the OT God had only one solution for them, but that solution is not available to us. So, we navigate in this mess the best we can and pray for wisdom from above in knowing how to lean into this cultural insane asylum.

It’s all religion folks. Apart from the rending of heaven yielding Reformation, it is going to get worse before it gets better. Interesting enough, what all this is going to eventually birth is a culture of repression. Eventually, some tyrant is going to grab the reins of power and that will be the end of all “No Kings” rallies, as well as the end of all loyal opposition. The current narcissist/neurotics will be shut down and like the old Soviet Union, protest, if it exists at all, will be underground and only at the risk of one’s life.

And you can the farm that the visible Church will be as silent then as it is now.